**AVOID** Vanilla Visa Gift Card

[Crazyfool]

Avoid the gift card like the plague!

I was given a £25 gift voucher by my sister last November for my birthday. In order to activate the card, she had to pay a further £2.95, so in all my present cost her £27.95.

The card has the Visa logo and on its website it states 'Vanilla Visa Gift Card is a prepaid gift card, welcomed anywhere Visa cards are accepted, including retail stores, online merchants and mail order.'

You would then think almost all stores would accept them, but none of my chosen stores would either touch it or their till wouldn't accept it. This included John Lewis, Tommy Hilfiger and Super Dry.

I got fed up, so asked my wife to try it to buy some stuff for herself in M&S. After calling the Manager and some jiggery pokery, he got it to work. The problem was, there was only £15 on the card.

I've called the company tonight and they are absolutely useless. All the keep saying is the small print indicates

'FeesThe following fees are applicable to your Card:Monthly Maintenance Fee (commences 7th month from date of purchase) £2.00...'

They couldn't tell me what activities are taking place to warrant the £2 per month, just that's what's in the small print.

So ultimately tough!

If you want to see other reviews, have a look here... https://www.consumeraffairs.com/credit_cards/vanilla-visa-gift-card.html

So if you want to give money as a gift, give them the cash, don't use this card account!.

 

[S205-FTW]

Are you asking for cash for your next birthday?

 

[Crazyfool]

Certainly will be!

 

[Spin_bowler]

Great reviews on that site. I particularly enjoyed the one from the guy who'd bought the card to avoid running up phone charges when he was phoning chat lines but failed and got a $380 phone bill.

I bet the conversation with his other half about how that happened was an interesting one.

 

[TheFoX]

Sounds like a scam to me. Charging a monthly fee on a prepaid card is easy money. So you load it with £25, then if it hasn't been used for seven months, you could start proceedings at a County Court for failing to pay the monthly fee.

If I had received a gift voucher, then found it was worth less than face value, I'd be annoyed. This is obviously a way of fleecing the public by offering a preloaded Visa card with a hidden agenda.

Nah, I'd stick to cash, or an actual voucher, such as Love2Shop, which are worth their face value.

 

[kid-jensen]

They're mostly used to "create" new Sellers identities on ebay and the like..

If you follow the right steps, there's no tracability back to your name or home address.

So basically, a scammer's tool, no wonder there's so many random charges..

 

[Crazyfool]

Oh man I went mental in the phone to the point that I just kept talking over the him.

The manager said to call back in 24 hours after they've reviewed my case. I'm not expecting any change in decision.

 

[brucemillar]

Don't get me started on the Shell Loyalty Card. This being the card where they take all your loyalty points back from you, without telling you, if you don't use them within xx months!! WTF kind of loyalty is that then? The rounded corner on the card also ensures it is pants as a windscreen scraper, and falls out your wallet. Useless.

 

[flat6buster]

It is reckoned that a billion dollars goes unclaimed on gift cards each year.

They are a great scam for the provider........

 

[DrNick]

Something odd here. The company website lists terms and conditions where it explicitly says that there are NO FEES after purchase other than an activation fee. There are no dormancy charges.

This is for cards bought after 2010. There was a dormancy charge for cards bought before 2010, but I don't think this should apply now!

Oh, yes, and the card can only be used in the US so of no real interest to us!

Interesting reviews though!

 

[mattc43]

Don't get me started on the Shell Loyalty Card. This being the card where they take all your loyalty points back from you, without telling you, if you don't use them within xx months!! WTF kind of loyalty is that then? The rounded corner on the card also ensures it is pants as a windscreen scraper, and falls out your wallet. Useless.

I just get my points redeemed as a voucher to spend on petrol each quarter? Doesn't everyone get this then? I know the return isn't great but Shell is my preferred and nearest petrol station so i'm going to use it anyway. Paying on my John Lewis credit card returns a tiny bit of cash there too so in all i'm not that disappointed.

You are correct when it comes to the windscreen scraper functionality though!! Not well thought through!

 

[CaptainChaos]

I just get my points redeemed as a voucher to spend on petrol each quarter? Doesn't everyone get this then?

I get a voucher to buy a gift card from the Shell shop. The only problem is the Shell shops round here seem to have stopped doing gift cards!

I believe what Shell send you is buried in the members settings bit of the website. I think I had better change mine!

 

[moonloops]

It is reckoned that a billion dollars goes unclaimed on gift cards each year.

This is the sole reason why gift cards exist.

 

[tangey]

I've used this gift cards before. I have a certain sympathy with the OP in regard with how difficult they can be to spend.

However the £27.95 price is clearly written on the card. And anytime I've bought one, the til operator has confirmed that I know there is a £2.95 fee. The non-use fee is a bit a bad thing, although I expect most people spend a £25 GC well within 6 months of getting it. Did you really have that much difficulty in using it ?

 

[Deleted member 6183]

Don't get me started on the Shell Loyalty Card. This being the card where they take all your loyalty points back from you, without telling you, if you don't use them within xx months!! WTF kind of loyalty is that then? The rounded corner on the card also ensures it is pants as a windscreen scraper, and falls out your wallet. Useless.

I have found that the Shell card only really works if you burn a lot of fuel.

When I was filling up twice a week I used to receive the money off coupons very regularly, now I don't do the miles I no longer bother with presenting the card as it's worthless.

 

[DrNick]

It turns out that they are available in the UK but you have to dig a bit to find out about them
https://www.myvanillaprepaid.com/ch...951060f54358e59a57554154c68253951957955c60c60 will take you to a page that has a link to terms and conditions at the bottom, and there there is a reference to the draining of cash after 7 months. I originally found the US version which has had this removed.

Something odd here. The company website lists terms and conditions where it explicitly says that there are NO FEES after purchase other than an activation fee. There are no dormancy charges.

This is for cards bought after 2010. There was a dormancy charge for cards bought before 2010, but I don't think this should apply now!

Oh, yes, and the card can only be used in the US so of no real interest to us!

Interesting reviews though!

 

[TheFoX]

On their front page...

Please Note:
A technical error prevented us from debiting some cardholder accounts with the
March Account Maintenance Fee.
If your card was affected, we will attempt to recover this outstanding fee from
your card on May 13th 2016. Sorry for any inconvenience.

And in the terms and conditions...

12.1
Monthly Maintenance Fee
. A fee of £2.00 will automatically be deducted from the Available Funds on
your Gift Card, starting the 7th month from the date of purchase of the Gift Card.

What is there to maintain? Surely if no transactions have been processed, there are no charges. Also, as it is a Visa card, fees are paid when purchases are made.

 

[Crazyfool]

What is there to maintain? Surely if no transactions have been processed, there are no charges. Also, as it is a Visa card, fees are paid when purchases are made.

Exactly my point! And they couldn't answer my question.

I don't shop at many places, but of those, they either wouldn't even attempt to try it, just said check Vanillas website and others swiped it, but the til wouldn't accept it.

 

[RonFleet]

Don't get me started on the Shell Loyalty Card. This being the card where they take all your loyalty points back from you, without telling you, if you don't use them within xx months!! WTF kind of loyalty is that then? The rounded corner on the card also ensures it is pants as a windscreen scraper, and falls out your wallet. Useless.

I just have my Shell Loyalty Card points automatically converted to Waitrose vouchers.

 

[Crazyfool]

I just have my Shell Loyalty Card points automatically converted to Waitrose vouchers.

Mine are converted to fuel vouchers